Catalyst of Sorrows One interesting bit is when Uhura was afraid to give Curzon Dax some classified info. She says something along the lines of " I trust Curzon, but how can I trust Dax's future hosts to be as trustworthy? " Serpents Among the Ruins I can't help but wonder if a certain Venusian fry cook didn't help Captain Harriman come up with his scheme. I enjoyed the book, but I have two problems with it. 1) There is something about it that gives me ADD. I'm never bored, but I just can't seem to focus on what I've read. This was actually the second time I've read the book, and I had the same problem both times. The first time I read it, I assumed that I just had a lot of things on my mind, and that I was doing the book a disservice by not paying attention. Now I think DRG maybe pulling some kind of Jedi mind trick on me. 2) SPOILERS I don't think the conspiracy will work. The plan centers around covering up the real deaths of over 4,000 Starfleet officers over a period of several months, and then tricking everyone into believing that they were all actually killed simultaneously in the Tomed attack. Sulu figures out the truth when she recognizes the name of an officer who's death she had witnessed a year earlier on the list of Tomed victims. So what's to keep the friends, family, and colleagues of the other 4,000+ "victims" from noticing the same thing? I mean somebody had to witness or have knowledge of most of these deaths, right? Doctors would have to be involved fairly often, too, I would think.
So, how's Probe? I thought CoA was pretty good. Memory Beta says it's part of a trilogy that also includes The Abode of Life and The Final Nexus. Have you read either of those by any chance? Any other "must read" Gene DeWeese books?
Reading them in order via the omnibuses is definitely the way to go. I made the mistake of jumping around and grabbing whichever ebook appealed to me. Not only was that way much more expensive, it also screwed up my view of the characters as they evolved. Of the ones you mentioned, Hard Crash is the only one I'm sure I read. It was a little sappy, I admit, but I liked it. A good showcase for Soloman, and i liked the new aliens. I think Bart was well utilized here as well. I also liked the high tech autopsy scene.
Started on Through Fiery Trials by David Weber earlier. (I did enjoy They Promised me the gun wasn't loaded by James Alan Gardner and am looking forward to the next one)
The Girl in the Green Silk Dress by Seanan McGuire. Second book in a series about a hitchhiking ghost.
Just posted my review of TNG: Ship of the Line by Diane Carey. I was not a fan. Currently, I have finally picked up A Dance with Dragons again, as well as reading New Earth, Book 2: Belle Terre by Dean Wesley Smith with Diane Carey.
I finished up ST: SCE: The Belly of the Beast. I had originally planned on reading all three novellas in Have Tech, Will Travel, but now that I have The Iron Codex by David Mack, I'm going to start that instead, after I read a bit more Star Wars: Dark Disciple.
The Beast - the only cruise ship that is more hazardous to your health than Royal Caribbean. I've been glancing through Memory Beta to see which S.C.E. stories I've read. Turns out, I've read more of the early ones that I thought. Since I have nothing better to do, here are some sketchy reviews of some books that I'm pretty sure I read. Probably. Interphase: I liked this one. I remember thinking that it would have been cool to see Scotty onboard the Defiant, but in hindsight, he would probably have taken too much of the spotlight from the regular crew. One interesting thing about this one is that the authors had Soloman use a lot of ellipses in his lines. It was as if he were still waiting for 111 to finish his sentences. Pretty clever. Cold Fusion: This was one of the first I read. Maybe the first. Nog is always fun, but Duffy came off as a jerk. I thought the aliens had potential. Invincible: An entertaining high tech version of The Ghost and the Darkness. Or at least the story the movie was based on. The transition from a true story to a Trek story didn't always translate smoothly, but it works for the most part. I think this would have been a good opportunity to explore Corsi's character. Gomez handles the bureaucrats and the science stuff, while Corsi deals with the sexist laborers and the big game hunt. The Riddled Post: A good ensemble story. It's a procedural, but it's done well. The characters don't just technobabble their way through the mystery, they use their skills in clever ways. Ambush: A lot of action, but that's pretty much it. The bad guys have about as much character development as the aliens in Space Invaders. No Surrender: I liked this one. I just wish the story was longer so we could have learned more about Gold and his former friend. Interesting note: The author, Jeff Marriotte, ties Gold and his buddy to Mark Jameson from TNG's Too Short a Season. Jameson's past, as revealed in that episode, shares some similarities with Kirk's actions in A Private Little War. Marriotte would go on to write a sequel to that classic TOS episode more than a decade later.
I assume you read it in the original Klingon? The next time someone writes a story about the QuchHa they need to include the line "Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front." I decided to reread some of the S.C.E. books I have instead of just trying to refresh my memory using Memory Beta. Foundations book 3. This is probably my favorite of the trilogy. The main story includes the Kelvans and shows a transwarp drive experiment. The brief bookend scenes aren't that important, but they tie up a thread from Interphase. I don't understand that last line about Tellarites. Oaths There is a very interesting moment in this one where Gold says that humanity's prohibition against genetic engineering is comparable to the Prime Directive. Just as giving cultures technology that they might not be ready for can lead to terrible unforeseen consequences, so too could artificially evolving mankind. Enigma Ship This one was a little longer than the average SCE book, and I think it benefits from that. The aliens and their ship were both interesting. It seems like I've read another book featuring aliens who traveled in spherical clusters, but I can't remember what it was. A TNG book, perhaps?
That attitude is why Trek's Luddite attitude toward genetic engineering makes no sense. Any technology can lead to terrible consequences, but that doesn't mean you outlaw it, it means you use it carefully and responsibly. That's why we didn't outlaw fire the first time someone's house burned down, or ban cars the first time there was a crash. Good grief, by such risk-averse thinking, impulse engines should be outlawed, because a single shuttlecraft hitting a planet at a quarter of the speed of light could cause a global extinction event. That's a hell of a lot more dangerous than genetic engineering. Sounds like TNG #3 The Children of Hamlin by Carmen Carter.
S.C.E. Grand Designs Quite good. I like this Gabriel Marshall character. This story put me in mind of the underrated TNG novel The Forgotten War.
I enjoyed Through Fiery Trials by David Weber, but can understand why many won't/don't. It's mostly stage setting for the next book by the look of it. I'm midway through The Iron Codex by David Mack now.
I decided with the start of 2019, I'd finally read through the post-nemesis books, beginning with TNG: Death in Winter. I plan to try to read through everything by the end of 2019. I've read bits and pieces over the years, but i have them all down in my library.
S.C.E. Bitter Medicine I liked this book better than Dave Galanter 's previous entry in the series, Ambush, but they both suffer from being too short. BM feels more like a complete story, but I think the premise is strong enough to have supported a much longer tale.